FOOTBALL supporters will not be allowed to stand during games despite calls from a Birmingham MP for a change in the law, Ministers said yesterday.

FOOTBALL supporters will not be allowed to stand during games despite calls from a Birmingham MP for a change in the law, Ministers said yesterday.

But the Government said it could be willing to think again, after MP Roger Godsiff (Lab, Sparkbrook and Small Heath) led a 90-minute Parliamentary debate on the issue.

He is campaigning an end to the ban on standing in the Championship and Premier leagues.

Every club is obliged to have all-seater stadiums, and can be fined if they fail to make supporters sit down.

Laws giving the Home Secretary the power to impose a ban were introduced following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 people died.

But Mr Godsiff told MPs that investigations into the tragedy had concluded that it was not caused by fans standing.

He said he welcomed the improvements to football stadiums over the past 20 years and no club should be forced to introduce standing areas.

However, they should have the choice to introduce them if they wished, because many supporters preferred to stand, he said.

Mr Godsiff told MPs: "Those people who want to stand would have their own safe standing area and those people who want to sit would also have their own dedicated seating areas."

Supporters were often forced to pay higher ticket prices because there were no standing areas, he said. "It suited the owners of top clubs to replace standing areas, where entry prices were cheap, with seated areas where much higher prices could be charged."

Mr Godsiff told Ministers it made no sense to ban standing at football on the grounds of safety, but to allow it at other sports such as rugby or events such as pop concerts.

"It is alright for thousands of people to jump around at a pop concert at a major football ground because that is not unsafe," he added.

But Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said changes were unlikely. But he told Mr Godsiff he was "not shutting the door" on the issue.